The Cessna 172 struck a pickup truck on the runway during takeoff at Knox County Airport near Rockland, Maine. Knox Country Airport is also the site of the worst aviation disaster in Maine when 17 people were killed when Downeast Airlines Flight 46 crash in fog on May 30, 1979 (http://bangordailynews.com/2009/05/29/news/crash-30-years-after-maines-worst-air-disaster/). (bangordailynews.com) 기타...

Fault has to primarily if not exclusively lie with the vehicle driver. A simple stop, look both ways, before crossing was all that was required with no distracting noise in the cab and windows rolled down on both sides. Relying on communications at an uncontrolled airport for ground vehicular traffic movement is an accident waiting to happen.

I'm based at that Texas airport...the SUV driver was not a pilot. There is a good cafe on the field that attracts many non-flyers. Unfortunately, as seen in the crash video, vehicles cross the runway safety area then drive on the taxiway to get there.

Some airports have hangers on both sides of runway and the only way to get there is to cross mid-field taxi way.Most all of the airports I fly to there is no tower or radio to ground talk just announce position and intentions.I watch for animal - people - and planes and autos prior to landing and take-off. Fly safe everyone.

It's like a lot of other uncontrolled airports, I go into RKD a number of times and people in planes or on the ground make incorrect or no radio calls. I don't know if this was the case here, but this current generation of pilots, be it small GA, corp., or airline, there is a serious deficiency in radio comm.!!!Just recently, I heard a Spirit and a United flight driving the controller to the brink of insanity, with a simple re-clearance readback.RIP to the deceased.

I made a similar comment last week on this very topic and was correctly chastised and reminded that there is no requirement for radio gear at most uncontrolled airports. The aircraft had the right of way but unfortunately that pilot is dead right. The driver of the pick-up was a local pilot, according tho the article and I have to assume he had a lapse of thought when he made the decision to transit the runway. He'll live with that for the balance of his life, but that doesn't help the dead guys nor their families. Accidents are the results of bad choices and are all avoidable but that's before the choice is made

Why would a POV, with or without comm gear be on a runway? Isn't it a case of the truck driver should be watching for traffic? Lots of blind spots for any aircraft especially on takeoff/landing. Most pilots would be focused on the center line ahead. Not on oncoming vehicle traffic. I thought runways were for take offs and landings pretty much exclusively. Maybe those who have to fly out of uncontrolled places could form a set of rules that, along with site management people, would be universal in nature and adopted by everyone?Such a terrible loss and a darn shame.

The runway at KRKD is bowed in the middle so even if you look both ways the plane wouldn't be seen, it was after the sun was over the horizon and the plane didn't have any lights on, The driver followed protocol and radioed waited replayed with "no response crossing runways ##-##" (I work at RKD and am a pilot)

As I said in an earlier post, we don't know all the facts. We don't know where the hump is in the runway there is no diagram.I only know it's there because of Frank's PIREP. We don't know how wide the active is or so how long it takes to cross the runway, there is no diagram. With 4 SOB you can be sure the 172 was not in high performance mode. I can't see a roadway crossing any runways on the satellite view of the airport. Lots of unknowns in a very brief article never meant to be an accident report to NTSB.

Frank, Some airports have ramps and hangers on both sides of a runway. Occationally a tug needs to tow an airplane from one side to the other. At controlled fields the ground controller keeps everyone safe. At uncontrolled fields everyone involved has to announce their intentions on the CTAF and look both ways. Obviously the tug/truck driver didn't hear or see the departing aircraft.